#charitable-giving
Charitable Giving
Donation strategies, tax-deductible contributions, and qualified charitable organizations
Donor-Advised Fund vs. Private Foundation: A Business Owner's Guide to Giving Appreciated Stock
A DAF deducts appreciated closely held stock at fair market value up to 30% of AGI; a private foundation caps the same gift at cost basis and 20%, plus a 5% payout and 1.39% excise tax. Here is how business owners choose between them.
Charitable Giving in 2026: Cash vs. Property, $500 Noncash Threshold, and the Appraisal Rule for Donations Over $5,000
Noncash gifts over $500 require Form 8283 and over $5,000 require a qualified appraisal — and every single gift of $250 or more needs a contemporaneous acknowledgment letter before the return is filed.
Nonprofit Thrift Store Bookkeeping: How to Value Donated Goods, Keep the Volunteer-Labor Exclusion, and Stay Off Form 990-T
Nonprofit thrift store bookkeeping covers the fair value and sold-price methods for donated inventory, IRS Publication 561 receipt thresholds, the roughly 85% volunteer-labor and donated-merchandise UBIT exclusions, and when Form 990-T filing is required.
Reducing RMDs With QCDs in 2026: How a $111,000 Charitable Distribution Lowers Your Required Minimum
QCDs up to $111,000 in 2026 let IRA owners 70½+ give directly to charity, satisfy RMDs, and exclude the distribution from income.
Donor-Advised Funds for Small Business Owners: Timing Charitable Giving Under the 2026 Rules
Starting in 2026, itemized charitable deductions only count above a 0.5%-of-AGI floor, while the new non-itemizer deduction excludes donor-advised funds. This guide shows small business owners how to respond — bunching several years of giving into one high-income year, donating appreciated stock to avoid capital gains, and using the 60%/30% AGI limits and five-year carryforward around a business sale.
Church Fund Accounting: How to Manage Restricted and Unrestricted Funds
An estimated $86 billion is lost to fraud inside churches worldwide each year, and most of it starts with one bookkeeping mistake — treating restricted and unrestricted funds as one pool. This guide explains how FASB ASC 958 classifies donor-restricted gifts, the three errors that get church treasurers in trouble, and the monthly habits that keep ministry books compliant and transparent.
The New Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (ECCA): What Small Business Owners Should Know Before 2027
The Educational Choice for Children Act creates a $1,700 federal income tax credit for cash donations to K-12 Scholarship Granting Organizations, starting with the 2027 tax year — but only in states that opt in. Here is how the nonrefundable, cash-only Section 25F credit works, the five-year carryforward, the 90% pass-through rule for SGOs, and why pass-through business owners should track their state's participation through 2026.
Professional Organizer Bookkeeping: Package Pricing, Client Property Liability, and Why the Donation Deduction Isn't Yours
A bookkeeping guide for professional organizers covering how to book package deposits and maintenance retainers as unearned revenue, the insurance clients expect (general liability, E&O, workers' comp — roughly $1,500–$3,000/year), why the Goodwill donation deduction belongs to the client rather than the organizer, and when a day helper must be classified W-2 instead of 1099.
Program-Related Investments: How Private Foundations Recycle Charitable Capital
Program-related investments let a private foundation count loans, equity stakes, or guarantees toward its mandatory 5% annual payout, then reclaim the capital as it's repaid, but PRIs to non-charitable recipients trigger IRS expenditure-responsibility rules with a 20% excise tax and personal manager penalties for noncompliance.
Accepting Cryptocurrency Donations: A Nonprofit's Guide to Gift Acceptance, Valuation, and IRS Substantiation
Nonprofits accepting cryptocurrency gifts over $5,000 cannot rely on exchange prices for tax substantiation — IRS Chief Counsel Advice 202302012 requires a qualified appraisal, and ASU 2023-08 now mandates fair-value accounting for any crypto a nonprofit holds past the point of receipt.
Your Nonprofit Just Received a Bitcoin Donation. Now What?
A practical guide for nonprofits accepting cryptocurrency donations — how to write a gift acceptance policy for digital assets, apply FASB's ASU 2023-08 fair-value accounting rules, and meet IRS substantiation requirements including Form 8283 signatures, qualified appraisals over $5,000, and the Form 8282 three-year disposition rule.
How Nonprofits Should Value and Record Gifts-in-Kind Under ASC 958-605
ASU 2020-07 requires nonprofits to present contributed nonfinancial assets as a separate line item, disaggregated by category, with disclosed valuation methods. This guide covers the fair-value rules of ASC 958-605 — which volunteer services are recordable, how to value donated goods, professional services, and facility use, the offsetting journal entries, and the $25,000 Form 990 Schedule M threshold.